Hertz Wellington Sevens

Last weekend the annual Hertz Wellington Sevens competition came to town. This is the fourth leg of the IRB Rugby Sevens competition, which is played in Gold Coast Queensland, Dubai and Port Elizabeth (RSA) before heading to New Zealand. It then goes on to Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, before finishing up in Glasgow and London.

The unique aspect of the Seven competition in Wellington is that the audience get dressed up in fancy dress, and the event turns into a giant party throughout the city. Whilst the rugby is played at the Westpac stadium, many bars in town host their own parties and many people get dressed up despite the fact that they have no tickets to the actual event. The partying goes on long into the night.

I went down to the Chicago Bar on the waterfront and snapped a few of the costumes:

The competition was interesting as the traditional strong teams are now being challenged by some of the lesser countries, as rugby sevens is going to become an Olympic sport in Rio in2016. Countries such as USA are ramping up their ability, and there are some surprise contenders in this year’s competition, including Spain and Portugal. But the real surprise at the tournament was the Kenyan team, who were narrowly defeated by England in the final. New Zealand finished 3^rd, which was a disappointing result for them, having been knocked out by Kenya in the semi-final.

In the past, Sevens was seen in New Zealand as a route through to the senior All Blacks team. However the sport is evolving and the old assumptions that countries with a strong RU side will automatically be in the top echelon is no longer the case, as more specialist Sevens players are now making their way. Let’s see what happens at the next leg in Las Vegas.